Mizuho Securities USA LLC Purchases 103,207 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 662.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 118,782 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 103,207 shares during the period. Mizuho Securities USA LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $6,739,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. acquired a new position in W. R. Berkley during the first quarter worth approximately $201,000. US Bancorp DE raised its stake in W. R. Berkley by 6.7% in the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,841 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $959,000 after acquiring an additional 682 shares during the period. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 29.6% during the 1st quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 6,132 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $542,000 after purchasing an additional 1,399 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,439,361 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,161,417,000 after purchasing an additional 195,763 shares during the period. Finally, Cynosure Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the first quarter valued at $325,000. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

W. R. Berkley stock opened at $60.74 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $23.15 billion, a PE ratio of 15.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12-month low of $45.75 and a 12-month high of $61.96. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $58.46 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $56.15.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.90 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.20%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Truist Financial increased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. UBS Group increased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.08.

About W. R. Berkley

W. R. Berkley Corporation, an insurance holding company, operates as a commercial lines writers worldwide. It operates in two segments, Insurance and Reinsurance & Monoline Excess. The Insurance segment underwrites commercial insurance business, including excess and surplus lines, admitted lines, and specialty personal lines.